Observations Upon the Windward Coast of AfricaBy: Joseph Corry

First Page:

[Illustration: A MANDINGO CHIEF, and his HEADMAN, in their COSTUME, & other
NATIVES]

OBSERVATIONS
UPON THE
WINDWARD COAST OF AFRICA,
THE
RELIGION, CHARACTER, CUSTOMS, &c.
OF THE NATIVES;
WITH A
SYSTEM UPON WHICH THEY MAY BE CIVILIZED,
AND A
KNOWLEDGE ATTAINED OF THE INTERIOR OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY
QUARTER OF THE GLOBE;
AND UPON
THE NATURAL AND COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY;
MADE IN THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806.

BY JOSEPH CORRY.

WITH AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING
A LETTER TO LORD HOWICK, ON THE MOST SIMPLE AND EFFECTUAL
MEANS OF ABOLISHING THE SLAVE TRADE.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR G. AND W. NICOL, BOOKSELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY, PALL MALL;
AND JAMES ASPERNE, CORNHILL.
BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND ROW, ST. JAMES'S
1807.

TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH,
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES
OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

MY LORD,

Hightly flattered by your Lordship's polite condescension, in permitting me
to inscribe to you the following Pages, I return your Lordship my most
unfeigned thanks.

If they meet your Lordship's approbation, and that of a discerning Public;
or if they tend in the most remote degree to excite more intelligent
efforts and more active enterprise on behalf of the unenlightened African,
or to augment the Commerce of the United Kingdom with a Country, now in
danger of falling into the hands of our Enemies, I shall feel an ample
reward for the risques and dangers to which I have been exposed in
collecting these Fragments; while the occasion gives me the opportunity of
subscribing myself,

With becoming deference, I shall endeavour to illustrate in the following
pages, the observations I have personally made upon the Coast of Africa,
and to give the information I have obtained from an extended circle of
Chiefs, and native Tribes, relative to its Inhabitants, their Religion,
Habits and Customs, the natural productions and commercial resources, &c.
and attempt to delineate the most eligible grounds upon which the condition
of the African may be effectually improved, and our commercial relations be
preserved with that important quarter of the globe.

Though deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, and my own
incompetency, I obtrude myself upon Public notice, governed by this
reflection, that I am stimulated by an ardent zeal for the prosperity of my
Country, and am animated by a philanthropic solicitude for the effectual
manumission of the African, from his enslaved customs, his superstitious
idolatry, and for the enlargement of his intellectual powers.

I shall guard against the sacrifice of truth to abstracted principles; and
if in the most remote degree, I excite the interference of my countrymen in
behalf of the African, extend our commerce, and enlarge the circle of
civilized and Christian Society, I shall think that I have neither
travelled, nor written in vain.

Africa is a country hitherto but little known; those in general who have
visited it, have been either inadequate to research, or have been absorbed
in the immediate attainment of gain; moreover the European Traveller in
that country has to contend with the combined influence of the native
jealousies of its inhabitants, their hereditary barbarism, obstinate
ferocity, and above all, an uncongenial climate... Continue reading book >>